We must have the debate on voting reform
Gordon Brown must resist attempts to bury a long-awaited review of our electoral system.
CCTV in addicts’ homes?
I nearly fell off my chair while listening to Five Live a few minutes ago. The reason? A Scottish ‘drug expert’ has recommended putting CCTV in the homes of drug addicts to protect their children.
Pure, dead brilliant?
Hey, what’s so bad about trying to be the best wee country in the world? I rather liked being greeted by the slogan when I arrived back at a Scottish airport.
With regard to ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees.
I for one think that the Tax Payers’
Labour’s ICM lead now 5%
It’s multi-Gordons once again this morning but only half the number that accompanied the last poll, YouGov’s 10% lead, and one less than when the pollster, ICM, last carried out a survey two weeks ago.
ICM August Poll
ICM’s August poll for the Guardian has Labour’s led broadly steady at 5 points. The headline figures with changes from the last ICM poll, conducted for the Sunday Mirror, are CON 34%(+1), LAB 39%(nc), LDEM 18%(nc). Since bank holiday weekends are notorious for producing weird and wonderful samples, this poll was actually conducted in the middle of last week.
Labour lead down to 5% before social breakdown crisis
An ICM poll for today's Guardian puts Labour 5% ahead. Labour's lead is down 1% on a fortnight ago but the overall ratings of the parties are very stable. Most importantly, most of the fieldwork (22nd and 23rd August) was completed before the
Was Gordon's 10 point lead a blessing in disguise for Dave?
John Rentoul points out in a typically sharp column in today’s Independent that Gordon Brown has benefited from the low expectation surrounding his arrival at Number 10. There had been so much said about Brown’s weaknesses that the commentariat had almost forgotten about his strengths and totally underestimated how adept Brown would prove at turning "his pathologies into assets.”
If you can keep your head...
Listening Gordon? There is an Autumnal snap to my stride as Cameron remorselessly closes the gap to a mere 5% in the ICM Poll this weekend. Consider the old Scotty side kicks position. As David Cameron said, no-one was going to take a man who has managed to remove Blair after unprecedented electoral success, lightly ,but how do he do it . He did it by being immensely more powerful within the Labour Party .Blair’s power was in the country and when he sold that for
How Can We Address Inner City Gun Crime?
David Cameron has made a powerful speech this morning on gang and gun crime and the breakdown of communities. He talked about the terrible murder of Rhys Jones and called for a new "social covenant" between individuals and the state. He said: "What his parents said yesterday, when they spoke of their loss of their boy, of their child, and what he meant to them, was so powerful and moving."
David Davis accuses Home Office of 'cover-up' on gun crime
Given that the BBC's own graph showed the reality of firearms crimes (excluding airguns) whilst maintaining that gun crime "overall" is down, it really doesn't surprise me that David Davis has written to Jacqui Smith pointing out that the Government is basically lying about the state of firearms crimes, and in particular firearms homicide.
Tilting at Windmills
I posted a couple of days ago about people coming up with simplistic responses to complex problems, such as that of gun crime. Well, Tory blogger Dizzy has decided to take me for task for it. Dizzy says….
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has penned a short article for today's News of the World entitled 'Act Tough And Beat This Evil'
Another day, another rant
Trawling through the Sunday newspapers, as one does, I was particularly struck by the title of Portaloo's (as he is known in Private Eye) piece in The Sunday Times
Headed, "Guns, Europe... the more vital the topic the sillier Brown gets" it seemed at least worth a look, to see what the great sage had to say on the subject which is ostensibly our raison d’être.
Whatever interest one might have had in his words, however, came screeching to a halt on confronting this paragraph:
Guns,
Gordon Brown’s responses to the failed terror attacks, the floods and foot and mouth disease left him looking stronger. But his reaction to the death of Rhys Jones, the latest young victim of teenage gang killers, makes the prime minister look merely foolish.
No Time for Spin
Jacqui Smith's career as Home Secretary got off to a promising start. I was present in the House when she made her statement on the
Graeme Archer: London-ness and Andrew Boff - How to beat Livingstone
I was going to write about Iris Murdoch and Social Responsibility this week, but the media frenzy about the London Mayor seems to be heating up, and the esteemed Editor suggested I might like to try something new, like, ooh, why not write about politics? I said: Have you gone completely insane? But he meant it, apparently. So here goes: my four point plan to end Ken Livingstone’s career.
Brown faces rebellion of 120 MPs
According to this morning's Telegraph, Gordon Brown is facing hs first rebellion by the back benches over the new EU Treaty which, apart from the Government, everyone else in the EU is acknowledging is pretty much the same treaty that was rejected by the French and Dutch.
A fate worse than debt
If the
Vladimir Putin is worrying too much about relations with the west; he should watch his back in the east.
A crisis of conscience
Can a caring society exist in a market economy? A new book suggests the values of social consciousness have been steadily eroded.
Are Labour's Seats Now Becoming Hereditary?
What should be done about illegal immigrants in the
Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes had an article in Liberator magazine recently outlining the policy proposals they will be putting to the party’s autumn conference. That article is online, and there is also a flavour of the plans in today’s Independent:
500,000 incorrect records on DNA database
I am trying to decide whether we should be worried or pleased about this report from the Independent on Sunday:
Over 500,000 names on the DNA database are false, misspelt or incorrect, the Government has admitted...
What is the point of the Fabian Society?
The Fabian Society has done a poll on what people believe differing professions should earn. From this, they conclude, that professional footballers should earn £62,000 a year. Well what an pointless piece of research that is. My Guess, although it is part of a larger report, this fact was picked out to get the report some press coverage. however, to my mind it undermines what must be in the rest of their report.
Channel 4 - Cameron was right on NHS closures
Channel 4, not normally noted as any great supporter of the Conservtaive Party, has run an interesting piece in which they independently assess the threat to hospital up and down the country. Surprisngly they conclude that Cameron is justified to claim that they face closure.
TfL Seek Metronet Control
It's been announced that Transport for
All conspiracy theories are alike
Here's Robert Fisk in Saturday's Independent: "I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11." You know what's coming, right down to the defensive protest "I am not a conspiracy theorist".
What is the point of blogging?
Why do we blog? Does it serve any purpose? Is it “killing our culture” as some say, is it a “parasitic” medium as others do, or is it the promised land? It is the latter of course; allow me to explain why.
Timid Tories
John Redwood's on The Telegraph explaining how the (very) modest tax cuts being proposed can be paid for… We'll never actually get to a lower tax burden unless we have a smaller State. This isn't just about how efficiently some tasks are currently undertaken: it's about whether some tasks should be undertaken at all. Again, it's not just about cutting out nonsenses like ID cards, of the NHSW Spine, things that clearly are a) not needed and b) aren't going to work anyway.
Boris Johnson set to win Tory nomination by landslide
Later this morning the London Evening Standard will report a ConservativeHome survey of 351 London Tory members and supporters which shows overwhelming support for Boris Johnson.
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